Done
Posted on 10/27/2003 11:53:33 AM PST by SJackson
Wednesday, August 13, 2003 at 13:41
Attack of the Nazi Trolls: A Lesson for Message Board Moderators
In a recent blog entry titled, "I've Been Red-Baited!", I wrote, "I'm not familiar with LibertyForum.org, but it appears to be an anti-Bush, anti-war message board with a distinctly anti-Jewish undertone."
A member of LibertyForum.org named Max Soldo (aka "thoughtcriminal") has responded by e-mail and provided further clarification of LibertyForum's political orientation. He writes:
This forum is a libertarian forum, and is devoted to the libertarian concept of unabashed free speech. With that principle in mind, most posters aren't libertarian as many fringe types have taken advantage of this policy (which includes a no-banning policy) to run amok...hence the preponderance of anti-Jewish posts on this forum.
All of this raises interesting questions for any message board moderator -- such as myself -- who has tried his best to allow a relatively high level of free expression. Inevitably, Nazi trolls find your forum and begin probing your defenses. If you allow them to post messages, they immediately spread the word to other Nazi trolls and soon your message board is infested.
At that point, all the normal people stop posting. It's a bit like when a fight breaks out in a bar and everyone stops talking and turns to watch the fight, transfixed. Suddenly, your message board becomes an arena for Nazi trolls and people arguing with Nazi trolls.
This is called "free speech."
I decided long ago that allowing Nazi trolls to occupy my message board and drive off everyone who does not share their idiosyncratic obsessions is a very poor method for encouraging "free speech." Therefore, I make frequent and forceful use of such allegedly un-libertarian methods as censoring and, when necessary, banning troublemakers, brownshirted or otherwise.
Apparently, the decision-makers at LibertyForum.org have adopted a different approach. As a result, their self-styled "libertarian" message board has become, by Mr. Soldo's description, a playground for non-libertarian "fringe types" to "run amok."
"It does get quite ugly at times, but that's the price one pays for sticking to one's principles," writes Mr. Soldo in a subsequent e-mail.
Well, if that's the price, I don't think I'm willing to pay it. I will add the sad fate of LibertyForum.org to my growing list of reasons for rethinking whether or not I wish to continue calling myself a "libertarian."
Done
Your comment goes to the heart of why you and I rarely see eye to eye.
Well in some cases you might want to assess how potentially dangerous someone might be. If they are stockpiling a small arsenal in their basement and making vague threats of violence, then sure, it's a good idea to keep a close eye on them at the very least. Zundel just struck me as an eccentric kook who had a bug up his a$$, but also as essentially harmless and unworthy of prosecution.
Like when those jets flew into the towers?
Who's bitching?
Has anyone heard anyone bitching?
Not me.
Truce?
It's good to know where you're coming from. Makes you easier to ignore in the future.
Anyone who suggests that there has ever been a war in recorded history where "civilians" are not involved, has got a serious maturity problem, to say nothing of a near perfect record of ignorance.
...the worst folks generally are not that talented or compelling...
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I also detest the racists that hate Jews just as I do the racists that hate blacks and racists that hate Gentiles over there. But the black-haters and the Jew-haters don't have an organized presence designed to crush anyone who opposes them, so the rest of the racists flock to places that should be the best hope for someone seeking truth and fill it with trash.
Don't let the door hit ya...
Censorship that one may shed at will is not censorship in any real sense of the word.
Your clock is ticking.
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